Process of utilizing marl, making carbid.



IIERMAN L. HARTENSTEIN, OF OONSTANTINE, MICHIGAN.

PROCESS OF UTIIJZING MARL, MAKING casein.

Specification of Lettersifatent.

Patented Feb. 12, 1907.

Application filed April 17,1965. -Serial No. 255,965,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN L. HARTEN- STEIN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Constantine, in the county of St. Joseph and Stateof Michigan, have invented a new and useful Process of- Utilizing Marl,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to process of utilizing marl.

The object of the invention is to provide a process by which ordinarynative marl, such as is found in Michigan and other places, can beutilized for the production of commercial calcium carbid.

A further object of the invention is to provide a cheap, convenient, andhighly e'tlicient process by which the above result is obtained and bywhich a substantially pure grade of carbid isproduced.

I To theseends myinvention consists, substantially, in the method ofoperation and procedure hereinafter set forth.

According to the ordinary methods such as are commonly practiced in themanufacture of carbid for commercial purposes lime or limestone is mixedwith carbonaceous material, such as coke, and the mixture is fused ormelted in an electric furnace. In any case it has been necessary toinitially crush or pulverize the limestone, and this has been adifficult and expensive part of the process, owing to the nature oflimestone, which is a hard and rocky material and difiicult todisintegrate. r

The material known as marl is widely distributed throughout the UnitedStates and other places and occurs in the form of a pulverulent,lightly-coherent mud or earth,

and is ordinarily found in beds in swampy places and comprising abouttwenty to fifty percent. water. In this condition it is.

grayish or grayish white and'becomes much lighter in color when dried.

In spite of the fact that marl is widely distributed and easily obtainedits use has hitherto practically been restricted. to the manufacture ofPortland cement, for which it is largely used. The native marlordinarilycontains from ninety-five to ninetyeight percent. pure calciumcarbonate, and

it is on account of this factthat the material" is susceptible of use ina process for the manufacture of calcium carbid.

It will "be seen that in carrying out 111 .m-

productive of highly superior results.

electric furnace has been a serious difficulty,

vol tion many serious objections which "ave been encountered inmanufacturing calcium carbid are overcome and a superior grade of carbidproduced by a very cheap, simple, and eflicient process. Thedisintegration of the, marl into a fine homogeneous powder is easilyeffected, so that the inconvenience and expense of the usual method ofcrushing tlie limestone rock is by my processentirely done away with.Moreover, after the charge has been introduced into the furnace theuniform fineness and homogeneity of the material is Hitherto thepresence of unpulverized masses or particles of lime or limestone withinthe since such particles not only do not enter into the chemicalcombination to produce carbid, but they also interfere with the actionof the furnace by interposing high resistance to the electric current,so that the action of the furnace is interfered with and sometimesdestroyed, and not only is the marl found in a properly-pulverizedcondition, but it is so widely distributed as to be easily obtained, andthe limited number of uses to which it is put renders ita comparativelylow-priced commodity upon the market.

In carrying out my invention I first obtain a supply of the usual ornative marl, preferably containing a high percentage of calciumcarbonate, and expel the moisture therefrom in any suitable manner. Ifdesired, however, the marl may be slightly moistfor the purpose of moreefficiently. calcining the same, as will later appear. After the marl isthus suitably dried it is thoroughly pulverized and reduced to a fineuniform and homogeneous powder, in which condition it may be stored awayin bins or repeptacles for subsequent use.

Considered in its broadest aspects my invention consists in"disintegrating the native marl, either dried or containing a certainpercentage of moisture, and mixing. the same I with a suitable quantityof' carbonaceous material and then subjecting the mixture to the actionof heat, preferabl'yin the electric furnace. The approximate limitsof-percentage of moisture when the material is charged in the preheatervaries from the native prod- 1o 5 not as it comes from the marl bed orbark to bone or very dry. Of course-if mixed with carbonaceous materialand charged directl into the electric furnace all material shou d be dryand the 'mari disintegrated-11.0

In the preferred method of carrying out my invention, however, I burn orcalcine the marl previous to itsmixture with the carbonaceous materialand its treatment in the.

electric furnace or any suitable rotary calcining-furnace. I alsocontemplate the use of a mixture of the native marl, together with aquantity of the dried and. disintegrated stone. It is also obvious thatthe particular steps taken of the mixture in the electric furnace may bevaried widely and still fall with-.

in the principles of my invention, since satisfactory results may beobtained with various kinds of electric or other furnaces. For example,the mixture may be fused in an elec 'nese, chlorate of potash,

tricor other furnace and: allowed to cool in the form of a single coreor ingot,v or it may be reduced ina furnace and tapped therefrom throughsuitable openings and drawn off into molds. A- superheating compoundmaybe added to nace or may be added for maintaining the carbid in astate of fusion during the molding operation, and I have found asuitable honipound for thispurpose to comprise a mixture of carbid ofcalcium, black. oxid of mangaand aluminium, all pulverized'and mixed.to-

gether, and which constitutes the subjectmatter of my application,Serial N 0. 280,723,

renewal filed September 30,1905. I .do not desire, however, to belimited to the use of a superheating compound or to any particular style.or form. of furnace, as it isobvious that the purposes of my inventionmaybe obtained in many different ways.

I will nowdescribe the particular steps ofa process which I propose toemploy for carrying out the principles of my invent ion. In a practicalprocess embodying the principles of my invention the marl in its nativeand moist condition is first dried and is th en thoroughly crushed orpulverized into powder.

While various kinds of marl or mixtures of 3,000 Fahrenheit.

marl and limestone may be employed, I prefer to make use of a marl whichis comparativ'el richin carbonate of calcium for exam e, a grade of marlwhich contains between ninety-eight and ninety-nine per cent?pure'calcium carbonate. After the marl has been properly dried anddisintegrated it is stored away in bills or receptacles for further use.The dried and disintegrated ,marl'is .ner, preferably at a hightemperature, in any suitable rotary calcining-furnacesay about 'I havefound by practical experiments'that superior-results are attamed if acertain degree of moisture is allowed to remain in the marl or mixturedurtrig-the burning or calcining operai vion. The

the mixture from the calcining-furbituminous coal,

duces the calcium carbonate much more quickly than-a current of dry airalone would be able to do In practice I have found that under properconditions the mixture can be rom the marl. The moiscalcined'by theaction of, steam and air in one-eighth the time required were the steamnot resent. I 1 T e burned or calcined material consists largely of pureoxid of calcium or lime with a small percentage of silica, magnesia, andalumina. The mass at this stage of the process is in the form of a hihly-heated incandescent powder, and in t is condition it is ready to bemixed with a suitable quantity of coke or carbonaceous materialpreparatory to its introduction into the electric furnace and in properaccurately-measured proportions. The mixin operation ispreferablyperformed while t e calcined material is still in a heated. condition.After mixing, the mass of powdered and still heated materials may 'beintroduced directly into'one or more electric furnaces, where they arefused together and made to chemically combine for the productionof'calcium'carbidi For the purpose of conserving as much heat as ispossible throughout the various steps of my process I propose to run thein candescent material from the calcining-furnace directly into theelectric furnace after its proper mixture with carbonaceous material, sothat the heat of-the calcining opera tion is retained and a less currentis required durin the final fusing o eration. In order to stil furtherconserve t e heat of the proc- I propose to use the highlyeheated wastegases from the calcining-furnace for preheatmg the powdered coke orcabonaceous mateioo rial before its mixture with the calcium con tamingmaterial. In this way the heat of the waste gases from thecalcining-furnace is utilized and the economy and efficiency of myprocess is increased' After the carbid has been'lproduced in theelectric furnace it may be r lowed to cool within the furnace in theform of a single ingot. After it is cooled it may be broken or crushedinto suitable sizes for packin'gand shipment.

It-will be observed that by'my process a superior grade of calciumcarbid is produced from a common and inexpensive material, which,moreover, occurs in a substantially pulverulent state, so thattheezipense of disintegration is very much reduce It is alert to beobserved that by my process all han (lling and carrying of the materialduring the awn therefrom into molds or al-.

various stages of the process with the attendant inconvenienceandfrwaste is nowavoided and the process made exceedm 1y rapid,"certain, and convenient, and in a dition'to this the steps of theprocess are'so takenfthatthe entire amount ofheat applied is largelyconserved, so that there is very'little waste-of. heat energy, which hasalways been a very serious item in the expense of manufacturingcommercial calcium carbid, It will also be observed that by this processthe finely-divided carbon or carbonaceous material which is employed inthe manufacture of calcium carbid is'brought into most intimate andperfect association with the calcium carbonate, which is the activeelement in the mar]. This is most important in the manufacture ofcalcium carbid, because, as is well known, the more intimately thecarbon 1s associated being mixed with the-carbonaceous material.

The subject-matter of this application is contained in my" abandonedapplication, Se-

rial No. 188,961, filed January 14, 1904.

- Having now set forth'theobject and nature of'my invention and themanner of car-' rying the same into practical operation, what I claimas'new and usefula-nd of my own invention, and desire to secure-byLetters Pat- 1. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture ofcarbid, which consists in mixing mail -with carbonaceous material, andsubjecting the mixture to the fusing or melting actioniof the; electriccurrent, as and for the, urpose set forth.

2. T efprocess of utilizing marl 'in the manufactureof carbid, whichconsists iii-calcining marl, the same with carbonaceous material, andfusing the gre'sultant mixture,as and for the purpose set forth. 5

3. The process of. utilizing marlin the manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in pre heating a quantity of marl, introducingv the same into amixture containing .coke or car'- bonaceous mater1a1,and. sub ecting theresulting mixture to the fusing or melting action of the electriccurrent, as and for the purposeset forthl f 1- 4. The process ofutilizing -ma i'l in the manufacture of carbid, which consists-in d1.ing 'and disintegratingmarl, mixing t e Same with carbonaceous material,and sub- 11. The process of utilizing marl manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in caljecting the mixture to the fusing or melting action ofthe electric current, as and for the purpose set forth.

5. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in subecting moistened marl to the calcmmg or burning action ofheat, mixing the same with carbonaceous material, and introducing intoan electric furnace, as and for the purpose set forth.

6. The process of. utilizing marl in the manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in forming a mixture of marl containing from ninety-eight toninety-nine per cent. calcium carbonate with carbonaceous material, andsubjecting the mixture to the fusing or melting action of the electriccurrent, as and for the purpose set forth.

7. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in calcining a mixture of limestone with dried anddisintegrated marl, mixing the same with carbonaceous material, andsubjecting the mixture to the fusing or melting action of the electriccurrent, as and for the purpose set forth.

8. The process of utilizing marl 1n the manufactureof carbid, whichconsists in calcining a mixture of dried and disintegrated marl andnative marl, adding carbonaceous material, and sub ecting the mixture tothe fusing or melting action of the electric cur rent, as and for thepurpose set forth.

- 9. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of ca'rbid, whichconsists in calcining a mixture of limestone, native marl' and dried anddisintegrated marl, adding carbonaceous material, and subjecting themixture to the fusing or melting action of the electric current, as andfor the purpose set forth.

10. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of c'arbid, whichconsists in calcining marl, adding carbonaceous material thereto, andintroducing the mixture into an electric furnace while in'a heatedcondition,-

as and for the purpose set forth. i

in the cining marl, and adding to the heated product a quantity ofheated carbonaceous material, andat once introducing the mixture into anelectric furnace, as and for the pur,

pose set forth. j

' 12. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of c'arbid whichconsists in calcining marhpassiingfih'e same while heated into amixing-chamber, adding carbonaceous rod material to said mixing-chamber,and leading the product from the mixing-chamber directlymtoan-electri'cfurnace, asv and for" the purpose set forth.

- 13i The process of iut ilf'zingf infthe manufacture ofcarbid,whichconsistsinin -troducing i marlinto a rotary calcininglurnace, passing the same into a mixingmham ber, introducingcarbonaceous material into said mixing-chamber, leading the product intoan electric furnace and subjectin it to the fusing or melting action ofthe eectric current, as and for the purpose set forth.

14. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of carbid, whichconsists in calcining marl, adding carbonaceous material, introducinginto an electric furnace, adding a superheating compound, and drawingoff the melted product into molds, as and for the purpose set forth.

. 15. The process of utilizing marl in the manufacture of carbid, whichconsistsin calmaterial, introducing into a mixing-chamber and passinginto an electric furnace, as and for the purpose set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, this 13th day of-April,1905 in the presence of the subscrlbing witnesses.

HERMAN L. HARTENSTEIN.

Witnesses:

' JAY O. UPTON,

E. LORENCE MARsn

